


Sabotaged Equipment

by LeoBananaPhone0829



Series: The Misadventures of the Rest of The 694th Battalion [2]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: 694th Battalion, Anxiety, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Slash, the Jedi suck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:07:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26419978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoBananaPhone0829/pseuds/LeoBananaPhone0829
Summary: Axta's first mission with the 694th doesn't exactly go according to their plan but when does it ever?
Relationships: Clone Troopers & Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Misadventures of the Rest of The 694th Battalion [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913815
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Sabotaged Equipment

It's an easy mission, get to the old outpost, fix the scanning equipment, and go home. This planet isn't even that bad, covered in deciduous forests, a little cold but nothing they can't handle. 

Lieutenant Cerez wasn't that bad, she answered the questions that were volleyed at her, usually about her choice in weaponry, but otherwise kept her mouth shut. Ven was glad she didn't ask any questions about Kamino or their upbringing like most of the nat-borns usually do, he just can't deal with that right now. She carries her rifle in her hands, occasionally raising it to look through the scope and scan the horizon. She's been trained well. 

Ven continues the march over the rocky ridge. Sage jogs up to him, "How much longer till we get to the outpost?" He asks.

"Two more hours. Why? Need a break?" Ven teases. 

"We were built to not fatigue? Remember? I'm just bored." He knows Sage has a crooked grin under his helmet. 

"You're a pain in the ass. Go bother Oli." Ven bumps Sage's arm. 

"I'm already bothering Worm!" Oli shouts up to him. 

Ven looks over to Cerez when he hears a giggle. She makes eye contact with him and clears her throat, looking down at the ground again. She raises her rifle again when a blaster bolt flies from up ahead. "Sniper! Get down!" She barks as she hits the ground hard. 

A second shot goes off and someone cries out behind him. He can't even turn to see who's wounded, the enemy is pinning them in place with blaster fire. 

She pops up and rests her rifle on one of the rocks, carefully taking aim and fires two shots. A commando droid falls from the rocky cliff ahead and everything goes quiet. 

Ven braces for the "Idiot!" or "Dumbass clones!" that usually follows after a situation like this, but nothing comes. 

"Is everyone okay? Soundoff." She asks. Ven releases the tension in his shoulders. "Who was hit?" 

"I was, sir." Clocks' voice is small. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get into its line of fire." He stumbles over his words as he clutches at his left bicep. 

The woman hands her rifle to Enlo, "Keep an eye out for more." He nods and sets upon the rock she fired from. She pulls off her pack and crouches in front of Clocks. "It's alright. There's no need to apologize." She tells him as she takes off the armor covering his arm gently. 

Ven is shocked when she pulls out bacta patches from her personal kit. She talks to Clocks quietly while she applies them to the burn and helps him put his armor back on. She stands and turns to look at all of them, "Everyone else okay?" 

Murmurs and nods are all the replies she gets. Why does she care so much? They're clones. She wasted her own bacta supply on Clocks. The nat-borns get the good stuff, the stronger patches, ones with more numbing compound in them and she just slapped one onto Clocks' arm like it didn't even matter.

She straightens her comm headset and a lock of her pink hair falls onto her forehead, she doesn't even notice as Enlo hands her back her rifle. Her cybernetic eyes flit over the rock face in front of them, looking for more snipers. "Keep an eye out. If you see anything let me know." She says. 

\----------------------

When the shots go off she ducks behind a rock, looking into the scope and scanning the rock face for where the shot came from. A second shot betrays the sniper, one of the men cry out from behind her as the droid fires off a handful more. She locks onto the commando droid and pulls the trigger twice. Her shot connects and the droid teeters before it falls from the face. 

She turns and sees Ven tense and almost flinch when she speaks, "Is everyone okay? Sound off." All of the tension leaves Ven's body, "Who was hit?" 

The nervous trooper, Clocks, speaks up, his voice shaky as he clutches onto his left bicep, "I was, sir." His voice is small as if he's waiting for her to reprimand him for getting shot. "I-I'm sorry." He stumbles over his words, "I didn't mean to get into its line of fire."

She wants to tell him that there was no way for him to know there was a sniper waiting for them. That it was just chance. She hands her rifle to Enlo, "Keep an eye out for more." She pulls off her pack and crouches in front of Clocks. She keeps her tone soft as she pulls out a few bacta patches. "There's no need to apologize." She reaches for his arm slowly and starts to take off the armor blocking her way, "Let's get this off, and then we'll take a look. I'm no medic but I think you'll be alright, it looks like it was just a graze." She keeps her voice low and soft. She's able to tear his blacks just a little bit more to wiggle the bacta patch under it and wraps the patch and area in gauze. "There good as new." She slides the armor back into place before standing again, turning to look at each of the men, "Everyone else okay?" She checks in again. 

She gets murmured replies and nods. She takes a cleansing breath as Enlo hands her rifle back to her. She puts the scope up to her eye and scans the rocks one more time to be sure before she lets Ven continue to lead with a nod. The trooper takes a moment to look at her before he snaps back into himself. 

\------------------------

The rest of the hike is uneventful but he can tell that Cerez is still on edge, something is bothering her. "Worm, get to work." Ven orders Worm towards the old consoles. He nods and takes his place. 

Sage speaks to Cerez, her arms are crossed over her chest and she nods as she listens. He can't pick up on what she's saying back to him, the lack of a vocoder in front of her face makes her words smooth and soft. She smiles at him and nods when he excuses himself. "Emotionally constipated isn't a good look. What's wrong with you?" 

"I'm fine." Ven defends. 

"You don't like her." His brother shrugs. "You barely know her." 

"She's just like the rest of the nat-born officers. You just like her because she has pretty hair." The ARC levels his gaze on the officer. 

"You think her hair is pretty?" Sage taunts. 

Ven sighs, "Not the point."

"You're worried because she used her own kit on Clocks." Sage always could see right through him. "She worked with a team of nat-borns. It was just a mistake." 

"Lieutenant, come take a look at this." Worm calls out to her. 

She doesn't respond right away, her cybernetic eyes still focused on what's beyond the door, she blinks before she answers, "Oh! Were you talking to me? I'm sorry, still not used to the whole Lieutenant thing." She slings her rifle onto her back before she crosses the room. 

\---------------------------

She moves across the room towards where the trooper is crouched beneath the dusty piece of equipment. "Alright, let's see what we're looking at." She drops her pack and rifle before she crouches beside him. 

He points a gloved finger to the gouges in the durasteel, "What could have caused this?"

"Well, there isn't anything with claws that sharp on this planet, and based on the width between each slash I would say that this was done by a vibroknife. Someone sabotaged our equipment." She runs a finger over the divots, "They're rather recent as well. It might have been done by those commando droids but I don't understand why they didn't blast it to pieces unless they wanted it to malfunction and not destroy it." She stands, "They could have been expecting a full squad. This could have been a trap. I bet when they saw an ARC and an officer they were ordered to stand down."

"What do you want us to do?" Sage asks. 

"I'll take the roof, set up a perimeter, two at each exit, Oli and Worm, repair what you can as fast as you can." She picks up her pack and rifle and jogs down the hall, looking for the roof hatch, her boots kick up dust as she runs. The roof hatch takes some muscle but she gets it open and scrambles onto the roof. "Alright, let's see what ya got." She murmurs as she sets up her rifle. 

The commando droids move in one by one, she can hear Ven and Sage calmly giving orders to the others as they take up their positions. She takes a breath and aims carefully at the droid who slinks out of the forest to her right. She pulls the trigger and watches it fall to the ground. A droid runs out of the brush and towards Sage and Clocks." _We got 'im, LT."_ Sage tells her over their comms.

She shifts her scope towards the three moving towards the back entrance. Each of her shots hit home and they all fall to the ground in a sparking heap.

Silence fills the air as they wait to see if any more will try and make a statement today. She can feel the tension over the comms, hear each of their bated breaths as they watch. 

Two more commando droids barrel out of the forest, swords drawn. They hone in on Ven and Enlo, easily twisting to dodge their blaster fire. She takes aim but misses the first one, and barely clips the second one. She takes a breath and holds it adjusting her aim and fires off two shots, taking down the second one. 

She watches as Ven pulls his DC-17s and fires off a volley of shots, taking the damned thing down. She releases her breath when it finally hits the ground. 

_"Everything is back up and running, sir."_ Worm informs her. 

She takes a moment to close her eyes and just breathe, letting the adrenaline wash over her in waves, giving way to calm. "Good, we should try and get back before sundown. It's just going to get colder." She tells them as she stands again, making her way to the access hatch and climbing back down the ladder. 

Ven pushes past her as he moves to where Oli leans against the equipment, she can't quite gauge the emotion rolling off of him with his helmet still on, whatever it is it isn't nice, his shoulders tense, his hands balled into fists at his sides. Is he mad? Is he worried about another attack? Is he alright?

\-------------------------

Ven pushes past her quickly as she hops off the ladder, his hands shake so he balls them into fists. This is the first time he's had any combat outside of training since the attack. It feels like he can't catch his breath. He doesn't reach up to take his helmet off like Sage does, it would betray how he was feeling in that moment. 

Cerez stops and stands beside him and he almost flinches when she speaks, "How much damage were we looking at?" She asks Worm. 

"They tripped some of the sensors but nothing a bit of recalibration couldn't fix." Worm tells her. 

She lets out a sigh, "Good." She nods, "I think we took out most of the droids. My theory is that they may be scouting this area. We will have to keep an eye on it." She crosses her arms over her chest, "Let's get moving. It's already later than I would like it, the last thing I want is to get caught on that ridge after dark." 

Ven watches as she turns, her eyes squeezed shut for just a split second before she opens them and sends him a small smile, "You alright?" She asks him. it sounds so genuine, like she actually cares about his well being. 

"All good, sir" The automatic reply escapes from his lips before he can say anything else. She gives him a look of doubt but doesn't push it.

\--------------------------

It turns out that when the sun goes down on this planet, the winds pick up, enough that a ship can't make it through them, leaving them stranded until morning. 

A shiver rocks through Ven as the wind blows straight through the gaps in his armor. He looks over to Cerez, she's huddled under an emergency synth heat blanket, goggles pulled down over her eyes to block out the cold gusts. She doesn't say anything, doesn't complain about being stranded with a bunch of clones, she just places her chin on her knees and stares out into the forest surrounding them. 

Watching her is different than watching his General and Commander. She doesn't feel his eyes on her like they always managed too. He honestly doesn't even think she's paying attention. It's like her mind shut down for the night after her watch shift. She fiddles with something under the blanket, her arms around her legs, and her hands and the object on top of her boots. It's a black metal tube, it almost reminds him of a lightsaber but all of the ones he's seen are silver and gold. She seems to be screwing and unscrewing the bottom piece. It must be a piece to her kit that he's not familiar with.

She flinches against the next gust of wind, pulling the blanket tighter around her. 

"You sure we can't get a gunship down here? I'm freezing my balls off." Sage bumps him with his elbow. 

Ven just shrugs, "They said we had to wait till morning for extraction. I'm not arguing with Tyme on this." 

"It's not the surface conditions we need to worry about, it's the atmospheric conditions," Cerez speaks up, not looking away from the forest. "If they won't even fly a gunship down here that means it's worse than anything down here, we're the lucky ones." 

\--------------------------------

The saber in her hand is freezing, the metal biting into her fingertips. She fidgets with the pommel as she stares out into the dark forest. The Kyber crystal used to talk to her, nudge her ever so slightly. Now it's silent. She can't even remember the last time she ignited it, the warm yellow glow used to be a comfort, something she would stare at when the nightmares were too much.

In her peripheral she sees Sage plop down beside Ven, "You sure we can't get a gunship down here? I'm freezing my balls off." She huffs in amusement. 

Ven shrugs, "They said we had to wait till morning for extraction." His face goes a little soft at his next words, "I'm not arguing with Tyme on this." She understands what he really means, _I'm not risking any of your lives or the lives of our pilots. We'll be fine here until morning._

"It's not the surface conditions we need to worry about, it's the atmospheric conditions," She says, not taking her eyes off of the trees. "If they won't even fly a gunship down here that means it's worse than anything down here, we're the lucky ones." 

Ven straightens at her words, a frown gracing his features, she wants to tell him about how it takes more muscles to frown than to smile but she knows he won't like that. "Fine," He turns to the rest of his men, "Hunker down. We'll be here a while." 

A chorus of groans sound from them but they don't argue with the ARC. She tucks her saber back into its clip on the back of her belt before pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders, usually, she would have Beetle or Doc to share warmth with. Now she just has a squad of wary clone troopers decked out in plastoid complete with enviro controls so she'll just freeze out here alone. She tries to chastise herself for sounding so bitter, she knows the clones don't like nat-borns, it shouldn't have surprised her that they're keeping their distance. She settles again, her chin resting on her knees. 

When her eyes blink back open she notices a few things, one she isn't freezing anymore, two she's curled up on the ground, her arm tucked under her head, and three, something is digging into her ribs on her right side. "Owww." She groans. 

"Whaa?" A voice slurs behind her, the thing digging into her side moves away and she realizes it was an arm. She tries to scrabble away from them but they just clutch tighter. The synth heat blanket is wrapped tightly around them, she wiggles and turns enough to see that Sage is the one behind her, the top half of his armor stripped away. "Sorry, LT. You were shivering somethin' fierce last night, though you were gonna freeze to death." His voice is low and sleep laced.

"You're lucky, it could have been Oli." Worm calls over. 

Oli elbows Worm, "Hey!" 

She reaches over for her hat and headset, tucking the pink strands into it, the pins are useless now, after a night sleeping on the ground there's no way it's going to be able to be made pretty. The length falls just below her jawline, an easy length to keep up with. She yanks the pins out and places them between her teeth as she manhandles the tresses. 

"Your ears are pointy!" Oli shouts from across the camp. 

She shoots him a glare, it's way too early for his enthusiasm. She pulls the pins from her mouth and shoves them into a pocket on her belt. 

Sage finally sits up beside her as she puts her headset back on. He reaches for his own armor, sneaking glances at her every now and then, "Can I ask what species you are? You don't have to tell if you don't want to." 

The rest of the squad looks on in interest. 

"My mother was a Twi'lek, the pink variation, of course. My father was Sephi. I got most of his looks." She explains. 

"What color were your eyes? Before the cybernetics, I mean." Clocks is the first one to speak up. 

"A blue-green. I think." She blinks a few times, trying to remember. 

"Alright. Enough questions, let's get moving. We have five klicks before we get to the rendevous point." Ven cuts their conversation short. 

She hops up from the ground, stretching her back, sure the bunks are shit but it beats sleeping on the ground. She tries to dust off some of the dirt but eventually just gives up. She slings on her pack and picks up her rifle before letting Ven take point. 

\-------------------

After a shower and mid-meal rations she feels a lot better, the ache in her back eased, and her hair rearranged carefully. 

"LT!" Someone shouts from down the hall. She turns to see Sage jogging towards her, the paint on his armor looks touched up, the sage green, she smiles to herself when she puts two and two together, lines are sharp, the little sprout on his temple carefully outlined in a darker green. 

"Sargent, what can I do for you?" She asks him. 

"Oli and Clocks have something to show you in the hangar. I'm just here to retrieve you, sir." He's trying to hide a smile with professionalism. 

She has a feeling this has something to do with the missing chest plate, pauldrons, and bracers from her kit. "Lead the way, Sargent." 

\-------------------

Ven watches nervously as Clocks puts the finishing touches on her armor, they never had a CO that wanted their colors adorning their armor. He looks down at his own armor, the ARC pauldrons painted in a fresh coat of the sage green, different from the other units he's seen, they have lime green, forest green, the 41st had emerald green. The sage is softer, lighter. 

Sage comes through the doors with Cerez, a grin plastered on his face. She has another can of that horrible energy drink with her, this one a purple, it probably tastes like purple, not some fancy fruit on some far off planet but the manufactured version that just tastes like _purple._

She sets the can down on the workbench as Oli snags her chest plate, for once he looks shy, he knows this could go horribly, she could yell and scream at them, write all of them up. He holds it out to her and a smile spreads across her face, "Are you sure?" She asks him. 

"Your our LT. You need the colors to prove it." He says to her.

She reaches out for the plate and he hands it over.

\-------------------

The plates are amazing, leaves snake their way over the plastoid, similar to Ven's but oh so different. The same leaves decorate her vambraces and there's a sprout on her left pauldron, the dark grey of the right one has been painted over completely with the green. "Are you sure?" She asks. This is huge, the clones don't give their colors to just anyone, she's only seen a small handful of nat-borns who have been graced with painted armor. 

"Your our LT. You need the colors to prove it." Oli tells her gently. 

She takes the plate in hand and secures it to her chest before Clocks hands her the vambraces, Sage secures the pauldrons in place and steps back to look everything over. He looks proud.

Ven steps forward, "Welcome to 694th, Lieutenant." 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! Let me know what you think! Hope everyone is safe and sane!!


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